Kangaroo Island Day 1

We have thoroughly enjoyed that view today and finished the day with a glass or two of sparkling Shiraz on the beach this evening with our hosts; could be worse!
We have also explored part of the north side of the island. Whilst Kangaroo Island is not huge, the distances between places are large and take a while, even though you see little in the way of traffic. Few roads are direct. The northern coastline is calm and tranquil. There are lots of exquisite bays, home to many seabirds including pelicans and black swans. American River is a small and charming settlement. I was on the lookout for the rare Glossy Black Cockatoo often seen in this area, but not today sadly, only the white version. American River gets its name from a group of American sealers who landed in 1803 and camped alongside the Inlet, thinking it was a river. Wandering towards the cafe for a coffee, we diverted into a rebuilt boathouse to look at the partly reconstructed Schooner 'Independence'. On chatting to some of the volunteers we found out that the original was the first vessel to be built in South Australia. It was bought to these shores, it is thought, in basic kit form (IKEA eat your heart out!) from the crews base in New England. The young Captain Pennington was only 24 and his crew younger and they were hoping to take back a fortune in seal skins, but sadly the plan backfired, as the journey took so long the victims had emigrated to Antarctica for the summer! We discovered that George Vancouver had been one of the first to sail this way and chart the coastline. We remarked that we hailed from Vancouver's hometown, which interested the guys immensely and we told them a little of King's Lynn's history and the rebuilding of The Baden Powell, a project that has much in common with their own. In two minutes they had The Baden Powell up on Google and the phrase 'a small world' was all around.
Tomorrow we tackle the south coast and the temperature is promising to be around 35 degrees - Help!

As a postscript, arriving back from the beach, I went to open the screens at the back of the cabin and nearly jumped a mile. There were two kangaroos only 10 feet away. My cup runneth over!Read more